El Byers and the Secret Crush
by someone.else.before
Summary: Post season one, happy-ending AU. Eleven moves in with the Byers', learns to adapt to ordinary Hawkins life, and tries to figure out why Mike has been acting so oddly since their kiss in the cafeteria. (Hint: it's because he's an awkward middle school boy who doesn't know what he's doing). NOW COMPLETE :D
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note Jan 11th, 2017: If you would like to read this story in Spanish, Ivonette is currently working on a translation. I'll post a link on my Profile Page. _Esta historia ha sido traducida al español por Ivonnette. El enlace está en mi Profile Page._ Thanks/Gracias! :D

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At first there were hospital visits to make, reporters to hide from, parents to explain things to, practicalities to figure out.

There were lots of new things for Eleven to learn, like _bedtime_ and _alarm clock_ and _close the fridge door when you're done using it_ and _PB &J. _Joyce's house smelled strange, like smoke, and all the food was different than she was used to. She was scared of Jonathan at first because he was so tall and quiet, almost as tall as Papa and the scientists, but he made her pancakes and showed her how to play air-guitar and called her "Sis." Will was quiet in his own way, and still screamed awake at night sometimes, and didn't know her the way the others did, but he let her borrow his crayons and didn't laugh at her drawings even when his were so much better. Nancy came to visit and brought her clothes to wear and let her braid her hair sometimes. Dustin always brought her snacks even though Joyce told him they'd spoil her appetite. Lucas always acted extra nice to her – she could tell he still felt bad about yelling at her, back when Will was missing – and even showed her how to climb a tree.

Mike was… still Mike, but different somehow. He was still just as kind, just as warm towards her as before, always speaking so gently and always somehow understanding her way of communicating, even when she just tilted her head or shrugged her shoulders. But he seemed to have more trouble talking around her, getting tripped over his words and pausing in odd moments. Sometimes he even looked frightened of her. He was staring at her more and more and talking to her less and less.

She _hated_ it.

They were supposed to be friends. He was supposed to be the one who always knew what to say, who always told her what he was thinking and helped her understand the rest of the world. She couldn't help worrying that it was her fault, that she had done something wrong and now he couldn't trust her anymore.

Maybe it all started with that time they were alone in the school, waiting for Dustin and Lucas to bring food back from the kitchen, when Mike got all nervous and confused trying to explain something, and then he touched her mouth with his mouth.

It felt nice, when he did that, better than nice, but she wasn't sure what it meant, exactly.

Mike's parents bought her a Super-Comm for Christmas and she carried it everywhere. Joyce even sewed a special pocket in all her dresses so she never had to leave it at home. Somehow, even though the boys could only hear each other when they were less than a mile apart, Eleven could use hers to hear radio signals from all over town.

One night, when she in her room fiddling with the dials, she heard Mike's voice coming through. "I don't know, Dustin, can we please stop talking about this? Over."

He sounded annoyed.

"Just tell me why you've been acting weird around her! Even Will has noticed. Over."

"Why are you talking about this with Will?" Mike asked.

"Because. She is our friend. She helped save his life, you idiot. We deserve to know what's going on. Over."

"No, you really don't. Over."

"Ah-ha! So you admit there is something going on between you and Eleven! Over."

Eleven wanted to interrupt and let them know she was listening, but when she heard Dustin mention her name she suddenly felt curious. Maybe she would finally be able to figure out what was wrong with Mike.

Mike paused. He seemed to be considering something. "Fine. You win. I like her, okay? I like her a lot. But it doesn't matter."

Eleven remembered Mike's words from before. _You go to the Snow Ball with somebody that you like._ But what was so special about liking someone that it made you not talk to them? Was there more than one kind of liking, like how there were more than one flavor of Eggos?

"I knew it!" crowed Dustin. "Wait till I tell Lucas!"

Mike choked. "You aren't telling anyone! If you tell anyone about this I swear… I'll tell everyone how you wet the bed at camp!"

Dustin gasped. "That was two years ago! And you promised you wouldn't tell."

"I don't care, man. If Lucas finds out I have a crush on a girl he'll never let me live it down."

 _Crush?_ What an odd word to use. They told her to crush things in the lab, Coke cans mostly, and it never felt anything like "liking."

"Fine, fine, I promise I won't tell. But anyway, what's the big deal? El obviously has a crush on you, too."

El closed her eyes. Did she _have a crush_ like Dustin said? She liked all her new friends, and her new mom, and Nancy and Jonathan, but Mike was special. No one else made her smile just by saying her name, or made her feel safe just by holding her hand. When he said goodbye she always wanted to follow him. His words mattered more to her than anyone else's and sometimes when she pictured his face it made her heart pound like she was running up a hill. Was that _crush_?

Mike's voice got quiet. "You don't know what you're talking about, so don't act like you do. Over." He sounded sad.

"Um, I definitely know that whenever we visit Eleven without you, she asks where you are, and it makes her really sad when you don't come to see her."

"She's just being nice," said Mike.

"Sometimes your total obliviousness just blows my mind."

"Listen, Dustin," said Mike, getting upset again, "She _doesn't like_ me. I kissed her in the cafeteria like a total knucklehead, and now everything is ruined."

"…You WHAT?" Dustin's voice cracked in shock.

Mike sighed. "I kissed her, ok, and she just stared at me, and she didn't say anything, and she probably was totally grossed out, and…"

Dustin sighed. "MIKE! This is El we're talking about."

"So?"

"Soooo, she isn't exactly the type to talk your ear off. That doesn't mean…"

Suddenly El heard Mike's mom in the background. "Mike! It's time for bed, come upstairs now!"

"I have to go," Mike told Dustin. "And this conversation never happened. Over and out."

Eleven stayed up late that night replaying the conversation between Mike and Dustin over in her head. She had a feeling that she shouldn't have listened without telling them, that it was maybe like telling a lie, but she hadn't really meant to – it had just sort of happened.

She still wasn't sure if she completely understood what was going on with Mike, but at least she knew that it did have something to do with what happened that night – when they _kissed_ , that was the word he used. She whispered the word out loud to herself. _Kiss._ It was a pretty word, she decided.

Mike had said, "She doesn't like me." How could he think that? It didn't make any sense. She liked him more than just about any other person or thing she could imagine. Didn't he know that?

 _Well,_ she decided, _maybe I need to show him that he's wrong. If he knows I like him maybe he'll stop acting so weird and things will go back to normal._ Relieved to have finally found a solution to her problem, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Eleven wished that she could go to school with Mike and Will and Lucas and Dustin, but everyone said she "wasn't ready," so the adults took turns tutoring her at home instead. Joyce was teaching her to read – she had already learned the alphabet, growing up in the lab, but that was about it – and Mr. Clarke came by a few times a week to teach her math and science. When Joyce had to work, someone else took over. Hopper mostly read to her from an old history textbook, but he always stopped to explain things whenever she had a question. Nancy brought her educational videos from the library, documentaries about space or Neanderthals or the American Revolution. Sometimes Mike's mom Carol even came over to teach her how to write. Eleven liked Carol because she reminded her so much of Mike, although she was so pretty that sometimes it made Eleven feel shy.

This particular morning, Joyce had to work, and Jonathan didn't have class, so he stayed home with Eleven instead.

"Hey El, remember how we talked about the months of the year?" Jonathan said. She could tell from his voice that the lesson was starting.

"Yes," she said.

"Can you remember them?"

She concentrated. "January February April May June July August September November December."

He poked her gently. "Almost. You missed one. "

"No I didn't," she protested.

"Try again," he encouraged. He stood up and pretended to march around the room. She laughed. "Oh! March, I forgot March."

"Perfect!" he shouted, making her giggle again. "Okay, and what month is it now?"

She thought for a second, then ran to the kitchen where they kept the calendar hanging on a hook. The page had a picture of a red heart with an arrow through it. She tried to read the name of the month. "Feb – ru- ary. February? What month is that?"

Jonathan laughed. "Yeah, that's how it's spelled, but we all call it Feb-you-ary."

She rolled her eyes. "That's dumb."

Jonathan ruffled her short hair. "I know, kiddo. But hey, you got it right! Good job!"

She smiled, pleased. "Thanks." Then a question occurred to her. "Why do they put heart shapes on the calendar this month?"

"What?" Jonathan was confused. El grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over to the calendar.

"See? Hearts."

"Oh," Jonathan laughed. "It's for Valentine's Day. That's on the 14th of February, see?" He pointed at the date on the calendar.

"What's Valentine's Day?"

Jonathan smiled at her. "It's a holiday."

"Like Christmas?" she asked, her face lighting up. Christmas had been just about her favorite thing in the world. The lights and the singing and the candy and the presents – a pink headband with a silver bow, a children's atlas with pictures from all around the world, her very own compass and binoculars and Super-Com…

"Sort of," began Jonathan. "It's kind of a made up holiday, though."

"Made-up?" she asked, screwing up her face in confusion. "Like fairy tales?"

"No, not like fairy tales…" Jonathan started to explain, then stopped again. "Sorry, I know I'm not explaining it right."

She waited patiently.

"On Valentine's Day people give presents or cards to each other. The cards are called Valentines."

"Are you going to give a card?"

Jonathan turned red. "No, because I don't… well… if you give someone a Valentine it means that you like them. Like you have a crush. I don't have a crush on – on anyone." He was mumbling by the end of the sentence.

A crush! It was starting to make more sense now. Maybe he could help explain. "When you crush someone, it means you kiss them, right Jonathan?"

Jonathan stared at her. "How did you hear about… when did you…" he began, flustered. "Let's just – let's get back to the lesson, okay El?"

"Okay," she said, looking dejected.

"Look," he said, trying to cheer her up, "why don't you ask Mom, or – or Nancy about that stuff, okay? I just – brothers aren't good at explaining those things, you know?"

"Okay, Jonathan," she agreed, smiling.

"Good." He grinned at her. "Now let's talk about why it gets cold in the winter and warmer in the spring."

Eleven biked over to Mike's house after lessons, trying to think through what she had learned so far.

I need to show Mike that I crush him, she thought. Maybe I should just tell him that. But maybe telling wasn't enough. Papa used to tell her that he loved her, but she had known it was a lie, even before she ran away. Anyway, words were tricky and didn't always do what she wanted and so she decided that she had to prove to Mike that she liked him some other way.

She rang the doorbell and Nancy answered the door. "Hi El! I didn't know you were coming over." Nancy brought her inside and hung her coat in the coat closet. "Mike is at the library. I think he had some homework to do."

Eleven tried to hide her disappointment but she wasn't very successful. Nancy smiled warmly at the little girl. "Don't worry, he'll be home soon. You can hang out with me in my room, if you want."

Eleven grinned and nodded. As much as she was looking forward to spending time with Mike, she looked up to Nancy and loved being around her. They went upstairs and Eleven bounced up and down on Nancy's bed while Nancy scribbled in one of her school notebooks.

"Did you learn anything new today, El?" asked Nancy.

"Yeah! I learned about how the Earth turns around the Sun, but it's tilted like this," Eleven tilted to one side until she almost lost her balance "so that in the summer we get more sun in the northern hem-is-pere and in the winter we get less but it's summer in Australia and that's why it's cold now but it's getting warmer every day!"

"Really?" said Nancy, smiling. "What else did you learn?"

"I learned that they used to think the sun goes around the earth because that's what it looks like, but actually the earth revolves," Eleven spun around to demonstrate, "and that's why we have days and nights."

"Wow, you're getting so smart. You're going to be a scientist one day," said Nancy.

Eleven frowned and crossed her arms over her knees. "No." She sounded hurt.

It took a second for Nancy to notice the change in Eleven's tone. She sighed compassionately and left her desk to sit next to her on the bed "You're thinking about Dr. Brenner and the other men in that place, aren't you?"

El nodded, not meeting Nancy's eyes.

"Look," Nancy began, trying to find the right words. "The way those – those assholes treated you was horrible. It was just horrible, and they deserve – well, they deserve to spend a thousand years in jail, for what they did to you. But most scientists aren't like that. They aren't trying to hurt anybody. They're just trying to understand the way the world works, so we can build new inventions and find new planets and stuff. Like Mr. Clarke, remember?"

Eleven nodded. "I like Mr. Clarke. He taught me about butterflies."

Nancy laughed. "I've never seen a grown man who loves butterflies as much as Mr. Clarke. I remember when he was my teacher in Earth Sciences. I had a real crush on him that year."

"A crush?" Eleven gasped. There was that word again.

Nancy giggled and looked embarrassed. "You know about crushes? How did you learn that word?"

"Um, from Jonathan today." She didn't want to admit that she had been listening in to Mike and Dustin's conversation.

Nancy got a funny look on her face. "Does he have a – a crush – on someone, or something like that?" she asked while looking at her fingernails.

"I don't know," said Eleven. "I still don't really understand what it means, though."

"Well…" Nancy began. "I guess you're old enough. A crush is when you have really strong feelings for another person."

"Feelings?"

"You think about them a lot, and they make you feel nervous and like you want to impress them, you know? And you always want to be with them, and you think that they are really cute, or whatever."

"Cute?"

"You know, pretty, handsome, attractive…"

"Oh." Eleven considered this. "And so then you kiss them, right?"

Nancy stared at her just like Jonathan had. "How do you know about kissing?"

El shrugged her shoulders, feeling her ears getting red.

"Well, some crushes don't mean that much, like crushes on movie stars or on teachers, like Mr. Clarke. But sometimes you have a crush on someone and they feel the same way… like Steve and me."

"You have a crush on Steve? Do you kiss?"

Nancy looked at El with a bemused smile. "Well, yeah."

"That's why he sneaks into your room so much?"

Nancy got a panicked look on her face. "Keep your voice down! And how do you know about that?"

El didn't know why they were whispering. "Mike told me."

Nancy rolled her eyes. "That little…" She focused on El again. "Look, El, things like crushes and kissing are kind of… private, right? You don't talk about them with – with everyone you know. But…" she softened at the girl's guilty expression, "you're my sister, basically, so you can ask me about that stuff whenever, um, you have questions. Just don't worry about those kinds of things too much. You'll have time to understand all that when you're a little older, okay?"

"Okay, Nancy," Eleven nodded and smiled. She liked that Nancy said they were sisters.

Nancy let El rummage through her closet and kindly asked the girl's advice on an outfit for her date with Steve, although she eventually vetoed the dress El had picked out – a purple satin evening gown left over from last year's homecoming – on the grounds that "we're just going to the movies!" Still, Nancy let Eleven take the dress out and hold the soft fabric in her hands while Nancy finished her homework. "I'll let you borrow that dress when you're older!" commented Nancy casually, and El decided being older was something she was really looking forward to.


	3. Chapter 3

_I apologize about the formatting glitch I had in the previous chapter, and really appreciate everyone who took the time to let me know so I could fix it. I promise to never publish without previewing again! *embarrassed*_

 _Also, for those who have been asking, this is a multi chapter fic so there is lots more to come, probably about ten or 15 chapters in total. Just FYI so you know what to expect._

 _Thank you so much for reading, and a special thanks to all my reviewers. Hope you keep enjoying the story! :)_

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When Eleven heard Mike come through the door downstairs, she suddenly felt like her heart was going to burst through her chest. She didn't know why, but knowing that he liked her, that he was having a crush on her, made her strangely nervous about seeing him again. She stood there frozen until Nancy nudged her. "Sounds like Mike is home! You should go say hi." Even then she couldn't move and just stared at the ground. Nancy laughed. "What's up with you today?" El gathered up her courage and walked out of Nancy's room and downstairs, where Mike was busy taking books out of his backpack.

"Hi, Mike," El said quietly.

Mike jerked out of his seat. "El! Oh, uh, hi! I didn't know you were here! What are you, what are you, um, doing here?" He went to scratch his chin absent-mindedly and dropped the textbook he was holding, causing it to fall onto his foot. "OW!"

"Mike! Are you okay?" Eleven asked anxiously, stepping towards him.

"Me? Oh I'm fine, don't worry about me, just fine over here," Mike said, turning red. He picked the book up and put it back in his backpack and zipped up the bag. Then unzipped it. Then zipped it again. Then unzipped it again, and said, "Um, El, I got you a book, actually, from the library today."

"Really?" El said, her eyes sparkling. Mike smiled at her and her heart squeezed tight in her chest. Then he blushed and looked away, scratching his neck and kicking at the coffee table. He took the book out of his bag and she took it as an opportunity to get closer to him, looking over his shoulder at the cover. "Will I be able to read it?" she asked. "What is it about?"

"It's a book of fairy tales. You said you liked that stuff, right?" Mike looked at her hopefully. "I had to hide it from the other kids because, well, boys aren't supposed to read these kind of books, but I thought that maybe you would like it. I thought – well, the pictures are pretty, anyway. I'm supposed to return it in two weeks, but if you need to keep it for longer I can probably pay the fine."

She took the book from him, carefully opening it and turning the page. She was immediately taken in by the beautiful, colorful illustrations. For a second she almost forgot that Mike was there. Then she remembered. _Mike thinks I don't like him. Have to show him that I do._ So she stifled her nerves and turned to him and did something she had never done before: she gave him a hug.

Mike was clearly very surprised by this turn of events, and for a second El was worried that she had done something wrong. But Mike laughed and hugged her back, locking his arms around her waist and letting her put her head on his shoulder, and it was pretty much the best feeling in the world, almost better than Eggos or Christmas.

Finally Eleven let Mike go and Mike looked at her with a pleased but slightly embarrassed expression. "What – um, where did that come from?"

El shrugged, looking down at the ground and feeling her face get all warm. "Thank you for the book," she whispered, her voice sounding strange in her ears.

"Oh." Mike started kicking the coffee table again. "Um, don't worry about it."

They sat in awkward silence for a moment and El stared at the book in her lap, feeling like she wanted to melt into the ground. Somehow hugging him had just made things worse. How was she ever going to get her friend back?

Finally, El spoke up. "Mike?"

Mike jumped in his seat as if he had been deep in thought.

"Yeah, El?"

She looked at him shyly. "Will you read a story to me?" She pointed at the book. Usually she was embarrassed to ask the boys to read to her – she wanted to be grown up like them, and learn to read her own books to herself – but the pictures were so interesting that she couldn't wait to find out what the stories were about. Plus, she knew that Mike liked telling stories – that's why he spent so much time preparing what he called"campaigns" for the group – and for some reason she just really enjoyed listening to his voice.

Mike grinned, his nervousness seeming to fade away. "Sure, El." He grabbed the book and started leafing through it. "Which story do you want to hear?"

She shrugged. "You choose."

"Um, okay…" he scanned through the book. "How about this one? The Twelve Dancing Princesses? Do you know that story?"

She shook her head.

"Well, Nancy likes it so maybe you will, too." He cleared his throat. "Once upon a time…"

Eleven poked him in the side. "Mike?"

He laughed, "Already you have a question?" She looked down, a little hurt, and said nothing. He squeezed her shoulder apologetically. "I'm sorry El, I didn't mean it that way. You can ask me anything."

She sighed and looked at her hands. She hated asking questions sometimes, wished she already knew everything there was to know about the world, like Mike and his friends did. But she knew Mike tried to be patient with her and explain whatever he could.

Mike nudged her, making her smile. "What were you gonna say?"

"What – what is "dancing?"

Mike looked at her with an expression she couldn't read. "I thought you knew that word… when we... um, talked about the Snow Ball…" He sounded hurt. "You should have told me that you didn't, um, that you didn't know…"

She didn't say anything, just looked at him and waited patiently for him to explain.

He sighed and shook his head, as if trying to clear his thoughts. "Dancing is – it's something people do for fun, like playing Dungeons and Dragons. It's when you move around while you listen to music. You know music, right?"

She nodded. "I like music." Jonathan had showed her about music almost as soon as she had moved in to the Byers'. Some of it was too loud, but some of it was pretty, and it made her happy inside when she heard him and Will singing along to the words.

Mike smiled. "Yeah, me too." The way he was looking at her made her feel ten degrees warmer all of a sudden. "When you listen to music, do you ever want to go like _this_?" He started moving his shoulders from side to side and bopping his head back and forth.

El nodded, excited. She'd done that before. "That's _dancing_?"

Mike laughed. "Well, that's one kind of dancing."

"More than one kind?" El gasped.

Mike nodded. "There's lots of different kinds of dancing. Ballroom dancing like they do in old movies. Ballet like Nancy used to do. Slow dancing…" He blushed suddenly and looked down.

She had a feeling this was important. "Slow dancing? Is it like _this_?" she asked, imitating his previous movements but doing them in slow motion.

Mike chuckled. "No, El. Here, slow dancing is like this." He grabbed her hand and motioned for her to stand up. "You stand like this" – he took a step in towards her – "and then you put your hands on my shoulder" – he positioned her hands in the right place – "and then I put my hands on your waist" – he did so, making Eleven feel strangely frozen - "and then we sway like this."

Eleven had never heard her heartbeat so loud, had never felt so confused and scared and perfect and happy all at the same time. Mike's face was right next to hers and he didn't seem to be blinking.

"This is how they dance – at the Snowball?" she asked in a tiny whisper.

Mike nodded and swallowed a lump in his throat. "Yes."

He started to lean towards her and she was trying to decide what to do when Mike's walkie-talkie hummed alive, startling them both. Mike stepped away from her so suddenly he whacked his calf on the leg of the coffee table.

"OW!"

Lucas, Dustin, and Will were calling for him over the radio. Mike picked up, his face red and his hands shaking slightly. "I'm here!" he announced, keeping his eyes away from El's. "What's going on? Over."

Lucas and Dustin talked over each other, and neither El nor Mike could understand what they were saying. "Slow down, guys, I don't copy. Over."

There was some scuffling in the background, then Will took over. "We're going to the arcade. Do you want to come? Over."

Mike smiled, an excited gleam in his eye. Then he glanced at El, who was looking down at her new book sadly. "El? Um, do you want to go, too?"

She looked at Mike and bit her lip. _Friends don't lie._ She shrugged and gestured to the book in her lap. "I… I wanted to read the story."

Mike considered this for a moment, then smiled and nodded. "Me too," he said, and her face lit up with happiness. He picked up the super-com again. "Sorry, guys, I'm busy. But maybe I'll meet you later." He heard them start to argue, so he stated firmly "over and out" and turned the gadget completely off. Turning to El, he smiled and picked up the book, scooting in next to her on the couch. "Okay, so where were we?"


	4. Chapter 4

El thought "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" was one of the nicest stories she had ever heard. She liked how the princesses were all sisters and slept in a big room together, and when Mike got to the part about the hidden trap-door that let them escape to a secret forest, she gasped with delight. She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes and imagined walking through a forest where the trees were made from silver, and meeting a prince (who looked a lot like Mike) who would take her in a boat to an enchanted castle, and dancing in the moonlight with her sisters and their princes until their shoes fell apart and they had to go home. El yawned and curled up on the couch, starting to doze off around the middle of the story, her head still nestled on Mike's shoulder.

Mike stayed as still as possible and listened to El breathing in and out. He looked at her face and saw her long eyelashes fluttering as she slept and felt like someone had put a spell on him. She looked so tiny and vulnerable that it made his chest ache. A second later he almost laughed. _Vulnerable? The girl can throw you around like a sack of potatoes, you idiot._

Mike sighed, scratching behind his ear. This would be so much easier if she was just his best friend. Why did she have to be so pretty, and kind, and warm, and always looking at him like he was some kind of genius superhero with all the answers? It made him want to act like someone else, someone older and braver who could sweep her off her feet like she deserved. She still had so much to learn about the world and he was afraid she would never be able to understand the way he felt about her, much less reciprocate it. She had spent the first twelve years or so of her life without knowing friendship or family. The absolute last thing he wanted to do was scare her by asking more of her than she was ready to give. So they would be friends – best friends – and he would try to ignore the way his hands shook when she sat next to him and the way her smile took all the oxygen out of the room.

With a clang and a shout, Lucas and Dustin and Will barged in through the Wheeler's front door, then stopped in their tracks to stare at Mike and El curled up on the couch, El fast asleep with Mike's arm around her. Will's eyes nearly bugged out of his head and Lucas shouted, "I _knew_ you weren't doing homework," clearly annoyed that Mike had missed out on such an awesome arcade trip just to be with a _girl._ Dustin just chuckled, looking at Mike and mouthing the words " _She likes you too_ ," causing Mike to shake his head and blush all the way down to his toes.

The commotion made El wake up from her nap. She sat up, surprised and embarrassed to have fallen asleep on Mike's shoulder. Still, she couldn't understand why their friends were staring at her like she had grown a second head. She looked to Mike for answers, but he suddenly stood up and moved to the other side of the room, avoiding her eyes. She felt a stab of hurt and tried to squash it.

"Hey guys," said Mike, his voice sounding louder and higher than normal. "How was the arcade?"

The boys looked at each other, as if to say _is he serious?_ Then Lucas answered.

"Um… it was awesome. You… shoulda been there." He didn't hide his annoyance.

Will stepped in, always the first to defuse an awkward silence. "I finally beat Dustin at pinball!" He smiled, still reveling in his victory.

Dustin scoffed. "Only because I was distracted. Your days at the top of the high-score chart are numbered, Byers."

Mike laughed. "I would've creamed both of you, and you know it."

"No way!"

"I would!"

Dustin plopped down on the couch next to El, grabbing a fistful of Nilla Wafers out of his backpack and handing one to her. "What do you think, El? Who is the best at pinball: me, Will, or Mike?" He bit down on the cookie, making crumbs fly onto his sweatshirt.

"What about me?" Lucas interjected, indignant.

"Oh, come on, Lucas, you know you always lose when we play."

"Not true!" shouted Lucas, knocking Dustin's hat off, much to the other boy's dismay.

"Fine," sighed Dustin, "between me, Will, Mike, _and Lucas_ , who do you think would win?"

She tilted her head. She had only watched them play arcade games a few times, but the bright lights and loud music had made her too disoriented to easily follow who was winning. They all seemed to be good at those games, much better than she was.

Still, she remembered her resolution, to make Mike realize that she liked him. Maybe this would help.

"I think… Mike," she said quietly. She stole a glance at him in time to see a small smile light up his face. _It worked,_ she thought to herself happily.

"Told 'ya!" laughed Mike, poking Lucas in the arm.

"Well, what does she know!" objected Lucas, swatting away Mike's hand.

"Um, she's watched us all play, and she's totally impartial!" said Mike, defending his title as Best-Gamer-in-the-Party.

Lucas snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, impartial. And it has nothing to do with the fact that you two were snuggled up together, like, a minute ago."

The atmosphere in the room turned cold. Mike crossed his arms and looked down at the ground. " _Shut up,"_ he mumbled to the carpet. Eleven was still trying to figure out what had happened. She looked around the room. Will was shifting back and forth nervously from foot to foot. Dustin was looking at Lucas like he wanted to smack him. Lucas looked defiant but also a little guilty.

Eleven spoke up, looking at Dustin. " _Snuggled?_ " she asked. It wasn't a word she knew.

Dustin snorted with laughter. "Oh El," he said, ruffling her short hair, "what would we do without you?" He made his eyes get big and tilted his head, and whispered " _Snuggled?"_ in an exaggerated high voice.

"Don't make fun of her," Mike snapped, his voice tense, but she knew Dustin was just _teasing_ her, a concept she had recently learned was an important part of being friends. She could tell because of the eye-crinkling smile that had broken out on Dustin's face. She decided to play along. "Snuggled?" she shrieked, giggling. "Snuggled?"

Suddenly Will joined in, calling out "Snuggled?" and his voice cracked so much they all started dying of laughter. Dustin attacked Eleven with a bear hug and started tickling her, calling out "Snuggle attack! Snuggle attack!" and then Will and Lucas and even Mike all joined them on the couch, laughing and play fighting and shouting "snuggle snuggle snuggle" until none of them could even breathe.

At five o' clock Jonathan called to tell Will and Eleven that it was time to come home for dinner, and even though Will tried to argue that they could stay and eat at the Wheeler's, Jonathan mentioned the words "homemade Sloppy Joes" and Will decided eating at home sounded like a good idea after all. He was glad that El was there to bike home with him – he would never have admitted it to his friends, but having a monster-killing psychic riding beside him made the trip home a lot less scary than it otherwise would have been. He still avoided that shortcut through Mirkwood, though.

Eleven put on her new pink coat and her matching wool hat and followed Will out the door, excited to learn what a "sloppy Joe" was, and already feeling hungry. They were almost to the end of the driveway when Eleven heard Mike calling after her. "El! Wait!"

Will stopped the bike. "Go ahead," he told her, smiling. "I'll be here."

Eleven raced back to Mike's front door, where he stood clutching the picture book with the bright pink cover. "You forgot this," he said, holding it out to her. She took it from him, blushing when their fingers brushed.

"Thanks, Mike," she said quietly, willing him to look her in the eyes. When he finally did, she almost wished he hadn't. For some reason her heart was pounding again. "Maybe, we can read more of it… tomorrow…" she suggested shyly.

He smiled broadly, obviously pleased. "Yeah, okay! You can come back tomorrow at 4:30, and I'll read you another story."

Her heart soared and she nodded. Holding the book tightly in her arms, she ran down the driveway to where Will waited for her, already feeling like she was racing through the air before she had even started to pedal her bike forward.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, Eleven was so distracted she could barely finish a single math problem without sighing and looking out the window and wondering about Mike. Joyce noticed that her adopted daughter was acting oddly. After El forgot to carry the one for a third time in a row, Joyce put her hand on the girl's forehead and looked at her with worry in her eyes.

"Are you feeling alright, Ellie?" she asked. "Your face looks a little red."

Eleven shrugged, shaking her head. "Just… tired, Mama."

Joyce looked concerned. "I hope you aren't coming down with something."

" _Coming down with_?" asked Eleven, confused.

Joyce smiled. "It means getting sick."

"Oh," Eleven considered this. "Am I getting sick?"

"Well, how do you feel?" asked Joyce, rubbing the girl's back lightly. "Does your throat hurt, or your head, or your stomach?"

El shook her head. "No. Just tired. Thinking about a lot of things."

Joyce poured El a cup of tea and sat down next to her. "I see. Anything in particular?"

Eleven spoke carefully, not sure if she would be able to explain. "I'm learning… so much that is new. It's all so different… then before." Her throat tightened, tears suddenly threatening to spill over, and she wasn't sure why. "It's better, and I'm happy, but there's so much I don't know, and I don't know if I ever will, and… and…" she trailed off, trying to gulp down a sob. She didn't want to cry like a baby, even though she knew her new Mama wouldn't tell anyone.

"Hey, hey," Joyce spoke up, grabbing the little girl's hand and interlacing their fingers. "It's okay." She pulled Eleven into a hug, running her fingers along the short strands of hair at her scalp. "First of all, you should know that you are an incredible little girl and everyone is so proud of you and so happy you are here with us, okay? And I know you've had to learn a lot in a really short amount of time, and of course it's been overwhelming for you." Joyce sighed. "We probably should have gone easier on you, at least to start with, but we all just want you to be able to go to school with Will and the rest of the kids. And Ellie," she nudged her, "you are just so smart, my girl, we know that you're going to get there very soon."

Eleven gaped at her. "I'm… _smart_?"

Joyce whispered to her conspiratorially. "You're probably smarter than the boys." She laughed at El's shocked expression. "They just got a head start, that's all."

El smiled and nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I'm smart," she said, more confidently.

"Yes, you are!" declared Joyce, slapping the kitchen table. "Now let's see you put those smarts to work. Let's try another problem, shall we?"

In the afternoon Jonathan drove her to the Wheelers. When they reached the driveway he parked the car and just sat there, absently tapping the steering wheel.

"Hey, sis?" he began. "Can you ask Nancy… well, can you tell her… can you just tell her I said hi?"

She shrugged, not sure why he seemed so nervous. "Sure, Jonathan." She unbuckled her seatbelt and picked up the book Mike had given her. She hadn't let it out of her sight all day.

She got out of the car and started walking towards the front door, excitement fizzing in her stomach. She almost didn't hear her new brother call after her. "Hey, Eleven!"

She turned back towards him. "Yes, Jonathan?"

"You can – you don't have to – just forget I mentioned it."

She couldn't figure out what he was talking about. "What?"

"Don't tell Nancy I said hi. Don't tell her I said anything, about her, okay?" Jonathan ran his hand through his hair, making the ends stand up straight.

Eleven almost rolled her eyes. "Okay!" What did it matter whether Jonathan said hi to Nancy? Teenagers were really weird.

El rang the doorbell, expecting Mike to answer and feeling a funny kind of nervous energy all over. What story would they read? Would they _snuggle_? She promised herself that she wouldn't fall asleep this time.

She was surprised to see Lucas answer the door. "Oh, hey El!" he said. "What are you doing here?"

El pointed at her book, frowning slightly. "Mike said he would read a story."

Lucas looked uncomfortable. "Oh, uh… okay. Hey Mike!" he called out. "El is here!"

Mike appeared from out of the kitchen, running his hand through his hair, an anxious expression on his face.

"El! Um, how are, how are you?"

She shrugged and smiled, trying to ignore Mike's strange discomposure. She gestured to the book in her hands and looked at him expectantly.

Mike's eyes flashed with guilt and he stuck his hands in his pockets. "Oh, yeah, about that, see, I actually forgot that I promised Lucas that I would show him my new comic books today. So, is it okay if we do the reading thing tomorrow, instead?"

She stared at him, trying to understand. She had been looking forward to this all day. Didn't he know that?

Mike scuffed his shoe back and forth against the door frame. "I'm really sorry, El. I promise I'll read to you tomorrow, alright?"

Eleven tried to swallow the lump in her throat. _Whatever you do, don't cry._ She stared at the ground, willing the tears away. "Okay, Mike," she whispered to the concrete. Unable to stand there another minute, she turned and fled.

"El! El! Where are you going?" he called after her. "Come back!"

El ignored him, running away and feeling like a fool. She knew that Mike didn't mean to hurt her feelings but it still stung, feeling like he had chosen Lucas over her.

It wasn't like her to lose track of her surroundings, but she suddenly looked up and realized she didn't recognize the street she was on.

She spun around, peering up at the big houses and towering oak trees. They all looked so similar and she became disoriented, trying to retrace her steps. A man working in his garage stopped and stared at her, obviously suspicious of her strange appearance. She suddenly felt anxiety knot in her stomach and she took off in the opposite direction.

 _Is this my street? Or this one?_ She tried to remember. She knew the she lived on Bridge Road, but she wasn't sure how it was spelled. Plus it was getting darker and the signs were becoming hard to make out in the winter gloom.

As the sunlight faded, El began to panic. The shadows frightened her, and she couldn't help imagining that the monster was out there somewhere, getting ready to attack. "The monster is dead," she said to herself, "I killed it," but her teeth were chattering. She heard a rustling in the bushes behind her and gasped, so startled that she tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and fell to the ground.

"Mike!" she called out, frozen in terror. "Mike! Mike, help! MIKE!"

Nearly a mile away, Mike looked up from his comic books in surprise. "Did El come back?"

Lucas looked at him, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"I just… I thought I heard El," Mike said, sheepishly.

Lucas snickered. "Wow, Dustin was right. You really are obsessed with her."

"I am not!" shouted Mike, indignant.

 _Mike! Mike!_

Mike frowned. "You seriously didn't hear that?"

Lucas shook his head, looking worried. "Hear what, man?"

 _Mike! I'm lost! Mike! Help me!_

Mike stood up, his heart pounding in fear. "I think – I think El is communicating with me, somehow. Like with her powers. I think she's in trouble."

Before Lucas could argue, Mike was out the door and onto his bike, calling out "El! El! Where are you?"

El heard Mike's voice echoing in her mind, and she knew he had heard her somehow. "Mike! Help… I don't know where I am…"

"I'm coming! Just hold on!" Mike was pedaling so hard he could barely breathe. He didn't know exactly where to go, just following an instinct that he didn't understand. "Are you – are you in the upside down, El?" The thought made him nauseous with fear.

"I don't think so, I just got lost."

"Ok, good," he said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Do you see any street signs?"

"I don't know if I can read them…" she said, hesitantly.

"Just try, El, sound out the letters, okay?"

"S-y-c-a-m-o…"

"Sycamore Street! Okay, I know where that is. Do you see a white fence anywhere?"

She looked around. "Yes! I see it!"

"Just hold on El, I'm on my way! Stay where you are!"

Within a minute he was bounding down the street towards her, worry and relief both equally visible on his face. He kneeled down on the sidewalk and wrapped Eleven up in an almost painfully tight hug. "Oh, El, I was so worried about you." She looked at his face and saw tears gathering in his eyes, and she felt so sorry she couldn't breathe. "El, you have to promise not to run off like that anymore, okay? Friends don't run away from each other, no matter what happens."

She nodded, frowning. "I'm sorry, Mike. I promise I won't run away again." She sighed. "I was just angry, and – and sad, because you didn't want to sit with me and read stories like we did yesterday."

Mike laughed and laced his fingers through hers. "Of course I wanted to read with you! But I had promised Lucas three days ago that I would hang out with him tonight, and I couldn't get out of it." He squeezed her hand and whispered, "I was really mad that we couldn't read another story. I had been looking forward to seeing you all day." Immediately after the words were out of his mouth, Mike turned red and leapt to his feet. "Um, let's get you home, ok? Before your mom starts getting worried." He seemed eager to change the subject.

But Eleven smiled, her fear and hurt feelings completely forgotten. _I had been looking forward to seeing you all day._ Something about those words made her want to laugh out loud with happiness.

She climbed on the back of his bike, gingerly wrapping her hands around his waist and resting her chin on his back.

"Mike?"

"Um, yeah, El?"

"Me too," she said into his shoulder.

"You too… what?"

"I was looking forward to seeing you… all day, too," she murmured.

El watched the back of Mike's neck turn pink and tried really, really hard not to giggle.


	6. Chapter 6

Mike and Eleven rode along in silence for a while, watching the sky turn purple and gold as the sun set behind the bare winter trees. After a few blocks of this, Mike spoke up.

"Hey, El, how did you – I mean – you were out here, on the sidewalk, and I was in my basement looking at comic books, and I heard you talking to me. And you heard what I was saying back to you, even though I wasn't using the super-com or anything. How did you – how did you do that?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I just needed to find you, so I did."

"Have you ever done that before?"

"Well…" she considered, "I was always good at finding people. When I lived in the bad place" – she shivered and tightened her grip on Mike's shoulders – "Papa told me to find people and listen to what they said. But I just listened. I didn't ever _talk_ to them."

"Oh." Mike always got quiet when she mentioned her life from before.

A few more blocks rolled by.

"Mike?"

"Yeah, El?"

"What are you thinking?"

Mike sighed. They reached the dirt road leading to the Byers'. He hopped off the bike and El did the same, walking slowly together towards her house. "I don't know, I just… it's hard for me to hear about that part of your life, sometimes." He turned to her with an anxious expression. "Not that I don't want you to talk about it! You can tell me anything, you know. It's just-" He scratched behind his ear, trying to find the right words.

"I guess… I think about how I grew up out here, playing with my friends and fighting with my sister and complaining about homework, but still, being _happy_ , you know, and the whole time you were stuck in there" - he gestured in the direction of Hawkins Lab - "and you haven't told me everything about what it was like, but I know that they named you after a number and never taught you the word _friend_ and they – they _hurt_ you in ways I don't even know about…" Mike frowned at the sidewalk. "It makes me so mad I don't even know what to do sometimes. And I feel – well, I guess I feel guilty – because I should have known somehow. I should have rescued you."

Eleven grabbed Mike's hand, which had been balled up into an angry fist, and gently opened it, one finger at a time. " _Don't._ " She caught his eye and smiled at him. "It's good – it's good that you were happy. So you can teach me how to be happy, too." She squeezed his hand. "My life made me Eleven and your life made you Mike. And we're together now."

Mike grinned and swung her hand back and forth as they walked. "We're together now," he agreed.

They reached her door and he hesitated, nervously tapping on the handlebars of his bike. "Do you want me to come sit with you?" he asked. "We could read a story like we were supposed to."

Eleven shook her head. She felt silly for doubting him and running off, earlier. He had just been trying to keep from hurting Lucas's feelings.

"You should go play with Lucas," she said, smiling so he knew she wasn't upset anymore. "You promised him, remember?"

"Are you sure?" Mike asked.

She nodded. "Friends keep their promises."

Mike grinned at her. "You're right." He gave her hand one last squeeze before letting go. "But tomorrow, I _promise_ I will read to you."

After he was gone from sight, she reached out with her mind, finding the connection she had opened earlier. " _Mike!_ "

A block away, he heard her calling his name and nearly fell off his bike. "Um, hi El!" he shouted, looking around but seeing only empty suburban streets. "Are you – are you using your powers?"

" _Yes_ ," came the reply. " _And you don't have to shout for me to hear you._ "

"Oh," he said, embarrassed. "Cool. Well, what's up? Did you need something?"

" _No, I just wanted to tell you… thank you for rescuing me._ " Her voice in his head was quiet and sincere.

"Oh," Mike said, blushing. "Uh, don't mention it." He could almost hear her question in the air, and realized that wasn't a phrase she was familiar with. "I mean, uh, you're welcome, El."

His good mood lasted the rest of the day, even when his mother made overcooked vegetable casserole for dinner and his homework took forever and Holly drooled on his favorite shirt.

In pre-algebra the next day, Dustin nudged Mike when the teacher wasn't looking. "Hey Mike," he whispered, "Lucas told me you and El were reading each other's minds. Is that true?"

Mike glared at his friend. " _Keep your voice down!_ " He ignored him for the rest of the lesson, keeping his attention on the blackboard. When the bell rang, Dustin was right behind Mike, practically jumping up and down with excitement as they headed outside to recess.

"So… Mike! Is it true or not?"

Mike rolled his eyes. "I don't know, sort of. We were just talking – without talking – almost like using the super-com, but like we didn't need it to hear each other."

Dustin's eyes got wide. "That is so awesome! Do you think she can talk to me, too?" He looked around the playground. " _El!_ " he whispered loudly. " _El, can you hear me? Say something!_ "

Mike laughed. "I don't think it works like that."

"How do you know?" asked Dustin, indignantly.

"I think – I think she has to be the one to open up the channel, like turning on a walkie-talkie."

"Nah," laughed Dustin, nudging Mike in the ribs. "I think it's because she only reads the minds of people she has a crush on."

Mike turned bright red and punched his friend in the shoulder. "First of all, I told you she doesn't have a crush on me, so cut it out. _Secondly_ , it's not mind reading. I mean, I couldn't hear everything she was thinking, and she couldn't – well, I hope she can't hear everything I think about," Mike turned pale. "You don't think she can – you don't think –"

Dustin shrugged. "Who knows what kind of cool powers she has? Maybe she is listening to this conversation _right now_!" He laughed, unable to resist the temptation to make fun of his lovesick friend. "I bet she knows that you're totally obsessed with her and that you draw hearts on page eleven of every textbook you own!"

Outraged, Mike grabbed his friend around the neck and started play-wrestling him. "You little… it was one heart and I did it _one time_!"


	7. Chapter 7

Eleven was listening to the radio and practicing her handwriting.

"AaAaAaAa BbBbBbBb…" she wrote, trying to make the letters match the examples on the page. Joyce was at work and her new brothers were both at school. Hopper was coming soon, to take her on what he called "errands," but in the meantime she was perfectly content to sit alone and write in her workbook and listen to the pretty songs she didn't understand.

When she first moved in with the Byers, she refused to be left alone in the house, feeling too scared of the big empty rooms and the echoing silence. But after a while she learned to trust that her family would come back for her, and that she was safe here, and that being alone with your thoughts or your books could be nice, for a little while at least. She wanted to be like Mike or Nancy or Jonathan, who were brave and never minded being home alone. So when Joyce asked if she would be okay waiting here for Hop for an hour or so, she nodded and smiled and felt very proud of herself.

She heard the music stop and a voice come through on the radio. It was an ad. Jonathan had taught her that when you heard someone on the TV or on the radio talking to you like they wanted you to buy something, that was called an ad and you shouldn't listen, because it was usually something stupid anyway. But this ad caught her attention.

 _"Valentine's Day is tomorrow! Don't forget! Show them you care with a fresh bouquet of roses from Mimi's Flower Shop! Come on down to Mimi's, because your loved ones deserve the best this Valentine's Day!"_

Eleven gasped. Jonathan had told her that Valentine's Day was the day when you told someone if you had a crush on them. You gave them flowers or a card called a Valentine, and that's how they would know.

By the time Hopper pulled into the driveway, El was practically jumping up and down with excitement. Maybe he would be able to help her find a Valentine to give to Mike.

Hopper unlocked the door and walked in. "Hey there, El!" he greeted her, smiling warmly. "You've been working hard, huh?"

She nodded and showed him her workbook. "I did all the letters!"

"Looks great, sweetheart." He patted her head fondly. "You ready for some lunch?"

She nodded happily.

"Well, go on then, get your coat and put your shoes on and let's get going!"

They went down to a diner on Main Street, where Hopper let El choose where to sit (a big red booth in the corner by the window) and let her order just about anything she wanted. Over fries and a milkshake, El blurted out the question that had been on her mind all day. "Uncle Jim, how do you get a Valentine?"

"What?" asked Hopper, confused.

"The radio said Valentine's Day is tomorrow and Jonathan told me that on Valentine's Day you give someone a card called a Valentine but I don't know where to find one. Can you help?"

The police chief smiled and took a bite of his sandwich. "Who's it for?"

"Um… I don't know," Eleven mumbled, blushing and looking down at her fries.

"Yeah, right," he chuckled, but took pity on her embarrassment and didn't press any further. Besides, he was pretty sure she was thinking about that Wheeler boy who was always hanging around her like a lost puppy. "Well, back in my day, kids your age made Valentines by hand, in art class."

"Art class?" Eleven asked, curious.

"Oh, well I guess you've never done that kind of thing, huh? Well, if you're really set on making some dopey kid a Valentine, I guess I better teach you how to do it right." He laughed. Hopper had spent most of art class tossing balls of paper into the wastebasket with his friends, or flirting with the bored-looking girls who sat in the back row, but if his Ellie needed an art teacher he'd do his best.

El grinned and nearly bounced out of her seat in excitement.

They stopped at the store on the way home and surprised Joyce, who was working at the cash register. Hopper wanted to stop and talk with her, but El grabbed his arm and dragged him to the arts and crafts section of the store. It was decorated for the holiday, covered in red and pink crepe paper and heart-shaped balloons. El stared in wonder at the giant white teddy bear holding a plushy red heart. She poked Hopper in the side. "Is that a Valentine?" she whispered.

Hopper laughed. "Kind of… but I don't think Mike – I mean, I don't think your fella would want a teddy bear." He nudged her and winked. "Besides, homemade gifts mean more."

"Homemade?"

"It means something you make yourself," he explained. "Let's pick out some supplies, okay?"

They walked out of the store with enough construction paper, glitter glue, and stickers to make a hundred valentines, but Hopper wasn't good at saying no to Eleven, and anyways, as he explained to a bemused Joyce when they checked out, "we have to have options!"

Next they went to the grocery store to pick up some food for the house. Hopper knew that Joyce sometimes struggled to make ends meet, and since the Wheelers had taken on the responsibility of raising Eleven, he felt like he ought to pitch in whenever he could – although Joyce refused to accept any money from him directly. She was very stubborn and very protective of her independence – qualities that he found extremely attractive, if he was being honest with himself.

El always felt a little uncomfortable in this particular store, since this was the same place she'd "robbed" back in November. After Hopper had told Joyce about the police report, they'd marched her to the store and made her apologize to the store manager for stealing his Eggos and calling him a mouth-breather. She had wanted to apologize for breaking his door, too, but she knew he wouldn't understand that part. El spent an hour stocking shelves and sweeping the floors, and afterwards the manager patted her shoulder awkwardly and told her she was forgiven, as long as she never stole from anyone again. Afterwards he always smiled and waved at her when he saw her in the store, which usually made her turn red and stare down intently at the linoleum floor until he passed by.

Hopper showed the shopping list to El and waited patiently while she tried to decipher the meanings of the words. He pushed the cart and let her direct him around the store to find each item on the list. She practiced reading the signs and labels and whenever she saw an object she didn't recognize, she would ask him to explain what it was. They were in the store for almost an hour. Before El came along, his weekly trip to the grocery store used to take about fifteen minutes, with just a few items on the list: beer, cigarettes, frozen pizza. Now he was buying juice boxes and sandwich bags again, and he honestly didn't mind at all.

When they got home, Hopper made El help put the groceries away. He tried to get her to actually carry the heavy bags, explaining that just because she had magic powers didn't mean she could go through life without developing some decent upper arm strength. Still, in the kitchen, he pretended not to notice when she sent the boxes of pasta soaring up to the top shelves that she couldn't reach.

Finally, they were done with putting away all the food and it was time for "art class." They spread everything out on the kitchen table and got to work. Hopper showed El how to fold the construction paper in half and cut out a heart shape. Hers came out crooked the first few times, but eventually she got the hang of it. Next he taught her how to use paper doilies to make "lace" that she could glue around the edges. She played around with different color combinations and styles, finding herself enjoying the project. Hopper even started working on a Valentine of his own – although he wouldn't tell her who it was for.

El took out the bottle of gold glitter and dumped it out on the table. She tried to put some of it on her Valentine but it kept falling off. Hopper laughed.

"Here, let me show you." He handed her a glue stick. "This is like a marker, but with sticky stuff. If you cover the paper with it and then sprinkle the glitter on top, the glitter will stick to the paper." El nodded and gave it a try. When she saw the result she clapped with delight. The whole thing was sparkly now!

"Okay Ellie, I've got to get back to the station," Hopper said, checking his watch. "Your mom should be home soon. Make sure and clean this mess up before she gets back, okay?" The chief ruffled her short hair and she nodded. "Use a wet sponge to wipe off the glitter."

El gathered up all of the left over construction paper and other supplies and tossed it all into her room. Then she got a sponge and started trying to get the glitter and marker spots off the table – it was more difficult than she expected.

Every minute or so she would stop what she was doing and stare at the Valentine she had made for Mike, wondering what he would think of it and if it looked the way it was supposed to. Whenever she pictured giving him the card, she got a soft, fluttery feeling in the pit of her stomach. _Will Mike know what it means, if I give him a Valentine tomorrow? Or will I have to explain it?_ She had been trying to show Mike about her crush, but she honestly couldn't tell if he had figured it out yet. She hoped the card would be enough – she didn't have much confidence in her ability to find the right words when she needed them. _I'll try, though,_ she promised herself. _I need to make sure he understands._


	8. Chapter 8

El heard the doorbell ring and so she quickly folded her Valentine in half and slipped it inside the pocket of her dress. She answered the door, practically glowing with happiness when she saw who was standing on the porch. "Mike!"

Mike was momentarily struck dumb by her blindingly beautiful smile. It took him a second to gather his thoughts. "Uh, hi El! How are – how are you? I just thought – I should have called but I thought – maybe we could hang out here today? My mom is having her friends over..."

She nodded, inviting him inside. They sat on the couch, both awkwardly fidgeting. El thought about the Valentine in her pocket and blushed. She wondered if she would even have the nerve to give it to him tomorrow. Meanwhile, Mike was still thinking about his conversation with Dustin at recess.

"Hey El," he began, "at school today, I was wondering if you were going to try to talk to me, like you did last night? I listened really carefully, but you didn't say anything – at least not that I could hear."

She shrugged. "I'm sorry, Mike. I guess I just got really busy."

"Oh, um, it's fine, that's totally cool," he shrugged, drumming his hands on his knees. "What were you up to?" El furrowed her brow, confused, so he restated the question. "I mean, what did you do today?"

She smiled. "In the morning I did my handwriting, and then the Chief came and took me out for lunch, and we went to the grocery store, and then we made – well…" she paused, suddenly blushing and trying to keep from ruining the surprise, "we had art class."

Mike perked up, obviously interested. "Art class? That's cool! What did you make? Can I see?"

She shook her head anxiously. "No! Not done yet."

"Oh. Okay," Mike said. "No worries, you can show me when you're ready."

He looked over at her and noticed a stray piece of glitter stuck to her face. El caught him staring at her. "What is it, Mike?" she said, feeling embarrassed.

"You've got something… right here…" Before he could stop himself, he reached out and brushed her cheek gently with his finger. Her eyelids fluttered slightly when he touched her and he suddenly felt a lump form in his throat.

She looked at him, bewildered, and he blushed, trying to explain. "You just had some, uh, glitter, stuck to your face. I got it."

"Oh," she said, quietly. His face was so close to hers, and it was making her feel very dizzy and confused, like she couldn't breathe in air fast enough.

The idea of leaning over and kissing Mike suddenly lodged itself in her mind and wouldn't go away. The one time they had kissed, she had been so exhausted and she hadn't really known what Mike was doing or why, and it had all happened so fast. Suddenly she really wanted to give it another try to see if it would feel any different, now that she knew what it meant. But then again, what if she did it wrong?

With a cheerful shout of, "I'm home!" Will burst through the back door. El and Mike moved away from each other at lightning speed.

El paused for a second to get her bearings. She looked at Mike and he smiled a rueful smile. "Hi, Will!" he called out.

Will walked into the living room to greet them. "Hey El! Hey Mike! What are you guys up to?"

 _What are you up to_ , El repeated to herself. Mike had used the same phrase earlier and so she filed it away in her memory.

Mike shrugged, trying to act natural. "Just hanging out."

Suddenly, Will gasped with excitement.

"Were you guys… reading each other's minds?"

Mike groaned into his hands. "Not you, too!"

El looked at Mike, confused. "Reading… minds?"

Mike glared at his friend, then turned to Eleven. "He's talking about what happened yesterday. When we talked without… actually talking, remember? _Apparently_ Lucas told the guys all about it."

Eleven smiled and addressed Will. "It's not like reading. It's like listening. Like how I listened for you, in the upside down."

Will shuffled his feet, uncomfortable. He really didn't like talking about that place, and he always felt shy around El when he was reminded of the fact that she had basically saved his life.

Eleven saw the darkness in Will's expression and tried to distract him from the scary thoughts. "But it was different this time, because Mike could hear me, too. He heard what I was thinking because I was looking for him."

Will looked up at Mike, who was looking suspiciously self-satisfied. "Really? You heard her?" Mike grinned and nodded. Will turned back to El. "Can you try it with me? Say something to me in your head. I want to see if I can hear it."

Mike rolled his eyes. "She's not a toy, Will."

Will ignored him, and Eleven was willing to play along. "What should I say?" she asked, smiling.

"I don't know, how about your favorite color."

She shut her eyes and focused on the word pink. _Pink pink pink pink pink._ When she opened her eyes again, Will was still staring at her expectantly, while Mike was looking down with a secret smile on his face.

"Did you do it yet?" asked Will.

"I tried to," she said with some disappointment.

Mike laughed. "I heard you. You said your favorite color was pink."

They both turned to stare at Mike. "Woah," said Will. He looked at El. "Is it...?"

She nodded.

"That is so cool!" gushed Will. "I wish it worked for me though. I wonder why Mike is the only one who can hear you."

El shrugged. Even she didn't really understand the extent of her powers or exactly how they worked.

Will chuckled. "You know what would be funny, El? If you just sent him super-random messages constantly. Like Mike's just sitting in English class and suddenly he just hears you singing the theme song for some cartoon or something. You could mess with him so much."

Mike glared at Will, but Eleven threw her head back and laughed so sweetly that he couldn't stay annoyed at the two of them. Besides, the idea of El sending him secret messages all day didn't sound so bad, even if she was sending them as a joke.

Mike and El spent most of the afternoon reading together, while Will sat quietly in the corner working on one of his drawings. El made Mike read the story about the twelve princesses over again, since she had fallen asleep in the middle the first time. When he finished the story, she smiled and clapped. "Again?" she asked hopefully.

Mike chuckled and handed the book to her. "Why don't you try reading it this time?" he encouraged. It took her longer than she would have liked, but she eventually got through the story, and the look of pride on Mike's face made her want to take on a whole library for him. They took turns reading the stories until Joyce came home. She smiled affectionately at them and Eleven ran over to give her a hug.

"How was your day, sweetie?" asked Joyce. "It was nice seeing you and Hopper in the store today! Did you have fun making –" the woman stopped mid sentence, seeing El's wide eyes and frantically shaking head. "What is it, Ellie?"

"Secret," El whispered as quietly as she could manage. She looked back towards Mike, who was luckily preoccupied with tying his shoelaces.

Joyce chuckled. "Okay, then." She walked over to her son and put her hand on his shoulder. "How was school, Will?"

Will shrugged. "Okay, I guess. Mr. Clarke taught us about tectonic plates. And Dustin loaned me one of his comic books at lunch."

"How was social studies?" asked Joyce, slight worry in her tone. Will's teacher emphasized group projects and student participation, which was a challenge for her naturally shy and soft-spoken boy. "Did you talk in class at all?"

Will sighed. "I tried to. I don't know if I did it right. I'm really worried about the presentation tomorrow."

"You'll do great, honey. Have you finished writing out your speech?"

Will looked down. "No…"

Joyce sighed and nudged him gently. "Why don't you go work on that now, so you don't have to worry about it later, okay?"

"But Mom! I'm drawing!"

Joyce sometimes had trouble putting her foot down when it came to her youngest son, but she knew he needed a little push to get started. "Come on, Will, just work on the speech for a half hour, and then I think you'll feel much better about it."

Will gave into parental pressure and went to his room to write, while Joyce went to the kitchen to start cooking dinner. Mike and El sat back down on the couch and started reading "Beauty and the Beast." When Beauty's father wandered into the enchanted castle and was attacked by a vicious beast, El grabbed onto Mike's hand with anxiety. "Don't worry, he's going to be okay," whispered Mike, not wanting her to be frightened – but he also didn't let go of her hand, even after her fear had waned.

He could tell that the parts about Beauty being locked in the castle made her nervous, so he tried to skip over some pages, but El could detect what he was up to and she objected, insisting, "You have to tell the story right."

About halfway through, he remembered that this particular story ended with a "true love's kiss," and the thought of having to talk through _that_ particular concept with Eleven terrified him so much he was seriously considering changing the ending or coming up with some excuse to stop reading. He was relieved when, with two pages to go, El interrupted him to ask a question.

"Mike? Is magic real?" she asked, looking confused.

Mike started to answer, then hesitated. "Well… it depends what you mean by magic."

She shrugged and scratched her head.

"Magic is just a word for things we wish we could do but can't figure out how, or things we see that we don't understand. A lot of stuff we have now, like TVs and fridges and super-coms, in the old days they would have thought those were all magic. Because they didn't know how they worked."

She tilted her head, trying to follow his logic.

"I don't think fairies or enchanted castles actually exist. But before I met you, I didn't think it was possible for a car to fly." Mike smiled at the memory. "Some of the stuff you can do is pretty close to magic – at least that's what it looks like to me."

Thinking about El's powers reminded him of a question that had been lingering on his mind since his conversation with Dustin earlier. He looked at El, who was studying the illustration on one of the pages of her book, and concentrated. _El, if you can read my mind, look up at me and smile._

She looked up at him and smiled.

His heart sank. _Shit_.

El went back to studying the pages, seemingly oblivious to his consternation, and he tried to stay calm. _Okay, maybe that was just a coincidence._ He took a deep breath and gathered his courage.

"Hey El, can I ask you a question?" She nodded, wanting to answer his questions like he always answered hers. "You can't read my mind – or hear me - all the time, can you? I mean you wouldn't – listen to me without telling me, right?"

She started shaking her head, but then she froze, remembering the conversation between Dustin and Mike she had heard three days ago. Mike saw the guilt in her eyes and his stomach dropped.

"What is it?" he asked, anxiously.

 _Friends don't lie_ , she reminded herself, and took a deep breath. "I can't _read your mind_ ," she said, using the phrase he and Will used to describe hearing someone's thoughts – "but I did – listen – once," she admitted.

He stared at her in shock. "When?"

She looked at her hands and frowned. "Three nights ago. I was just playing with my super-com and I heard you talking…"

"Three nights ago?" he repeated, his face turning white. "But that was…" he stopped himself. "What did you hear?"

She shrugged, refusing to look at him. "El," he said, his voice slightly louder, "What did you _hear_?"

She sighed and shuffled her feet. "Just you and Dustin, talking…" she looked up and was stunned by the betrayal on his face. He knew exactly which conversation she meant. "Mike, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I just heard you talking about me and so I listened, I don't know why…"

Mike's mouth turned into a hard, angry line, but his eyes were filled with hurt. "That was a private conversation. I can't believe you, El! I can't believe you would spy on me like that!"

"Mike, I didn't know… Mike, I'm – I'm sorry," she began, reaching for him, but he pulled away.

"Don't," he snapped. "You knew it was wrong, you knew it. Did you think it was _funny_ , all that stuff I said to Dustin? You've been laughing at me this whole time, haven't you?"

She shook her head. "No, Mike, no, no…"

He took the book of fairy tales and threw it on the ground. "You can keep your book and find someone else to read it, okay?"

He stormed out of the house and she collapsed on the couch crying, clutching the book he had given her. "Mike! Mike, come back! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

At the sound of the screen door slamming and El's sobs, Joyce hurried out of the kitchen to find out what was going on. She tried to ask Eleven but the girl ignored her, still focused on Mike and trying to reach out to him mentally. " _Mike? Are you there? Mike, I'm sorry, please believe me…"_

 _"Go away, El. I don't want you in my head anymore."_

 _"Please, Mike…"_

 _"I said, GO AWAY!"_

She gasped with pain as she felt him sever the connection between them with brute force. She tried to re-establish it but somehow he was blocking her. She pushed against his mental barriers until her head was pounding and she tasted blood, but it was no use.

He was gone.


	9. Chapter 9

Eleven was vaguely aware of Joyce holding her in a tight embrace, trying to coax an explanation from her, or at least convince her that it was going to be okay. Will abandoned his class project to promise Eleven that he would "get to the bottom of what was wrong with Mike" and he quickly called up Lucas and Dustin so they could assist with the mission.

The three boys immediately rode to Mike's house to figure out what had happened. They found Mike sulking in his basement, staring at his Dungeons and Dragons notebook. When they walked in, he glared at them. "I'm not in the mood, guys."

"El's really upset. She says you yelled at her. We just want to know what's going on," explained Will.

"It's none of your business," Mike muttered.

Will took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. He was used to being the peacemaker, but he was having trouble not getting angry at his friend. "She's my sister now, and you made her cry, so I feel like it is my business."

Mike looked almost guilty for a moment, but then his face hardened. "That's not my fault. She shouldn't have done what she did."

"What are you _talking_ about, Mike?" asked Lucas, exasperated. "Just stop being a baby and tell us what happened."

Mike slammed his notebook shut. "She spied on me."

"What?" asked Will. "What do you mean?"

"The other day, Dustin and I were talking on our radios, having a private conversation- " Dustin's eyes went wide in understanding – "and then today she admitted that she used her powers to listen to the whole thing without telling me."

The boys stared at him, confused - all except for Dustin, who was rubbing his hands over his face in dismay.

"Uh, Mike?" asked Lucas.

"What?" he snapped.

"That's _seriously_ what you're mad about?"

"Yeah, why?"

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Well, because this is El we're talking about. I mean, when we first met her she almost took her clothes off in your living room." Dustin chuckled, but Mike didn't seem to think it was funny.

"So what?"

Lucas tried to spell it out. "What I mean is, she doesn't exactly have a strong sense of privacy. She probably didn't even know that she was doing something wrong." Dustin and Will nodded in agreement.

"She definitely knew it was wrong. Otherwise, she would have admitted it right away," argued Mike.

"Bullshit."

The boys stared at Dustin, who had issued this pronouncement from the corner of the room.

"Excuse me?" sputtered Mike.

"You heard me." Dustin stood up and pointed at Mike angrily. "That's bullshit and you know it. Mike, do you want to tell the group _what_ we were talking about that night, or should I?"

Mike gave Dustin a death glare. "You wouldn't."

Dustin ignored the threat and continued. "Listen, Mike, you can do whatever you want here. You can be a clueless little asshole to the girl who saved all of our lives, the girl who you are _clearly_ in love with, by the way, but the least you can do is be honest with us about the reason why."

"Shut up!" shouted Mike, turning his back on Dustin.

Dustin refused to let up. "Just _admit_ that this has nothing to do with privacy and everything to do with you being _terrified_ of the fact that now, she knows you like her. You didn't even wait to find out if she likes you too, you just flew off the handle and stormed off."

Mike stared at the floor, fighting back the tears that were starting to spill over. "I told you. She _doesn't like me._ "

Dustin sat down and rubbed his forehead, frustrated. "Fine, okay, maybe she doesn't. I mean, she lets you hold her hand and stares at you like your face is made out of Eggos, but sure, maybe you're right and she just wants to be friends." He slammed his hand on the table. "But that is still not a good enough reason to be a complete jerk to her."

Mike was stunned into silence.

"Let's go, guys, we're wasting our time," said Dustin, and he and the others filtered out one by one.

"Don't be an idiot, Mike," said Lucas.

"I think Dustin might be right," said Will.

Mike was left alone, twisting the hem of his shirt and going over in his head the reasons why his anger was completely justified.

Eleven lay awake until late at night, her mind reaching out to Mike almost compulsively, even after hours of finding nothing but static and locked doors. She nodded off a few times, but it didn't matter: even in her dreams she looked for him, called for him. She woke at dawn with a pounding headache and a blood-stained pillowcase, feeling so lonely and so afraid that she almost couldn't breathe.

That night, Mike dreamed that he was walking down a long hallway filled with harsh fluorescent lights. He looked down and saw that his feet were bare and that he wore some sort of hospital gown. A man with white hair took his hand and led him to a windowless room filled with beeping machines, with a camcorder set up in one corner. The man smiled at him, but the smile didn't touch his eyes. He took out a folder from his briefcase and gave it to Mike. The folder had a photo inside. It was a photo of Mike, his school portrait. The man pointed to the picture. "Find him. I want you to tell me everything he says."

Mike shook his head. "That's me. That's my picture."

The man with white hair looked at him with something close to pity and took a small mirror out of his briefcase. He placed it on the table in front of them. Mike looked in the mirror and saw that he was not Mike anymore. He was a girl with buzzed hair and a bleeding nose. "El?"

He – or she – looked away from her reflection and suddenly she was in Mike's basement bathroom. Somehow the frightening man beside her had turned into the boy from the photograph. "Still pretty?" she asked, feeling anxious.

"Yeah, pretty! Really pretty!" the boy nodded in reply. Her heart beat very loudly. "I want to tell you a secret," the boy whispered. "I have a crush on you."

She tried to say, "I have a crush on you, too," but the boy just stared at her like he couldn't hear anything. The boy looked at her sadly, then he became angry. He turned around and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Suddenly, she was in a tiny cell with no light and padded walls. She cried out in terror and pounded on the door. "Mike! Mike! I'm sorry!"

Suddenly Mike woke up, drenched in sweat, his heart pounding. What _was_ that?

He got up and poured himself a glass of ice water from the fridge. Careful not to wake his family, he crept to the basement, half expecting (or hoping) to see El asleep in the blanket fort. But the room was empty, and he shivered as he sat down at the gaming table, trying to understand what the hell that dream was about.

Why did he dream himself from El's perspective? Was it just his brain feeling guilty for the way he'd yelled at her yesterday? Trying to make him put himself in her shoes? Could be.

But the places in the dream – the hallway, the lab – they all seemed so _real_. He'd never seen them before in his life, and yet somehow they didn't feel like something his brain could have invented.

It was almost as if he had been inside one of El's dreams… was that possible? He shivered. She had nightmares often – he knew that much - and even though he was still angry at her, the vision of that dark windowless room made him feel desperate to protect her, to hold her to him and tell her everything would be alright. He sighed. It was all so confusing.

He lay down in the little fort she used to sleep in, back when she first arrived, and closed his eyes. He felt closer to her here, which made him feel peaceful, which was a _really_ bad sign, all things considered. He found that his anger was disappearing the more he thought about Eleven – her smile and her eyes and the way she said his name and the way she looked after he kissed her…

Mike groaned in frustration. Maybe Lucas was right. Maybe El hadn't understood that listening to someone else's conversation was wrong. After all, she had grown up under constant surveillance and had been used as a tool to spy on the Russians – facts that, ironically, Mike only knew about because he eavesdropped on the adults whenever he caught them talking about El. So who was he to throw stones? Besides, he had to admit that if El had said to him, "I heard you telling Dustin that you like me, and I want to tell you that I like you, too," his first response would definitely _not_ have been to lecture her about the importance of privacy. The thought of what his first response _would_ have been made him feel a little bit light-headed.

 _Dream on, Wheeler_ , he said to himself, trying to focus. Anyway, Dustin was right about some things – he _had_ been a jerk. Even if El only wanted to be friends, he knew in his heart she had never intended to hurt him or take advantage of his feelings. She just wasn't that kind of person.

Besides, he could tell from the contents of the dream – what he could remember, anyway – that she felt awful about the whole thing. He remembered what Will had said – you made her cry – and he felt absolutely overwhelmed with guilt and regret.

"Eleven, can you hear me?" he whispered. "El, are you there?"

He waited. Nothing.

He turned on his super-com. "El! El! I need to talk to you, do you copy?"

No response.

Mike stood up and opened the back door, ready to ride his bike over to the Byers right that instant so he could apologize to El. But the night was bitterly cold, so he closed the door and ran up the basement steps so he could grab his coat from the coat closet. That was when he ran straight into Nancy.

"Nancy? What are you doing?" he asked, caught off guard.

She stared at her little brother.

"Um, what are _you_ doing, Mike?"

"Oh, uh, I was just going… out," he said, trying to act casual.

"…at 2:30 in the morning."

"Yeah."

"Sorry kid, that's not happening."

Mike rolled his eyes. "You don't get it, Nancy. I messed up with El today. I yelled at her and I need to go apologize."

Nancy crossed her arms, going into bossy-older-sister mode. "Whatever you did, it can wait until morning."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Mike exclaimed. A second later, the floorboards in their parents' room creaked loudly.

Nancy shot Mike an angry glare. "Now look what you did! Go back to bed right now before we _both_ get in trouble."

Frustrated, Mike quickly tiptoed up to his room and got back in bed. With Nancy and his dad both awake, there was no way he could sneak out of the house undetected. And if one of his parents caught him, he'd be grounded for a week. _I guess I'll just have to go find her tomorrow._


	10. Chapter 10

_Author's Note: If you left a review on the previous chapter, just know that even though they haven't shown up on the site, I got them through my email. There seems to be a technical glitch going on, but please keep leaving reviews - even if they don't show up on the site right away, I still get them and they do mean a lot to me._

* * *

Mike wanted desperately to go see El in the morning before school, but his restless night left him so exhausted that he ended up oversleeping, so much so that his mom absolutely insisted on driving him straight to school so he wouldn't be late. They put his bike in the back of the minivan, and when he arrived in the schoolyard he seriously considered skipping class to ride over to the Byers'. But then he ran into Mr. Clarke, who wanted to talk to him about AV club on the way to homeroom, and he was forced to accept that he was going to have to wait until the end of the school day to apologize to El.

The school was decorated with pink and red streamers, and the girls were acting gigglier than usual, and the teachers had bowls of Hershey Kisses and conversation hearts on their desks. _Valentine's Day._ Mike slumped down at his desk and put his head in his hands. _As if today didn't already suck enough._

Joyce and El spent most of the day on the couch, eating popcorn and watching old movies. El didn't understand much of the plot-lines, but she didn't mind, and she found comfort in Joyce's presence beside her and the way her laughter sometimes made the whole couch shake. "This is what I always used to do back in the day, when I got down in the dumps about a boy," Joyce confided. It wasn't a phrase El recognized, but she could tell what it meant.

"When I was around your age," Joyce continued, "I had a crush on a boy at my school. He was very handsome and all the girls liked him." El tilted her head, struggling to picture her Mama as a little girl. "One day, I called him up and asked him to go to the movies with me." She laughed. "My parents were shocked! Girls weren't supposed to ask boys on dates, especially in those days."

"What happened?" asked El, curious.

"He said yes!" Joyce smiled. "But then I went to the theater to meet him, and he never showed up. And the next day at school, he ignored me."

Eleven gasped. "What a… a mouth-breather!"

Joyce laughed. "You can say that again!"

"Mouth-breather? Again?" asked El, totally lost.

"No – I mean – sorry. I mean, yes, he was." Joyce ruffled El's hair. "I went home and cried for three hours straight. But my mother said to me, 'Jojo, a boy who treats you like that isn't worth crying over anyway, so you'd better just forget about him.' And she was right." Joyce sighed. "It took me a long time to figure it out, but she was right."

El fidgeted, not sure she saw the connection. She didn't think she could forget about Mike even if she wanted to – which she definitely didn't.

Joyce realized she had forgotten to explain the point of her little trip down memory lane. "What I'm trying to say, El, is that if Michael Wheeler is at all worth getting upset over, he's probably just as miserable right now as you are. So don't worry about it too much. I'm sure you guys will patch things up."

El shrugged, not feeling sure.

"I just… I just don't understand why he's mad at me," she confessed. "So I don't know how to make it better."

Joyce smiled and patted El on the back. "Well, why don't you go over to the Wheeler's after school, and see if you can talk things through with him."

"Okay," agreed El, feeling her hopes rise slightly. Maybe Joyce was right, and Mike would be ready to talk to her now. She just wanted a chance to fix everything.

The school day went past agonizingly slowly. Mike was far too distracted to focus on his classes – he almost got sent to the principal's office for ignoring his math teacher when she asked him to go to the board. His friends sat with him at lunch but didn't say much, all of them still stewing over last night's argument. Nobody even had the heart to tease Will about the cheesy valentine he had gotten from Jennifer Hayes.

Mike's mind was stuck in a loop, flashing through images from his dream and rehearsing potential apologies over and over. During free period he went to find Nancy, hoping she could give him some advice on how to get El to forgive him. He found her sitting on the picnic table by the swing set, having what was evidently a very intense conversation with Jonathan Byers. Given how the usually mild-mannered Will had acted last night, Mike had some concern that Jonathan would knock his lights out for hurting El's feelings, so he hesitated to interrupt them. He waited to see if Jonathan would leave, but Jonathan did not seem interested in leaving. This was made clear when the two teens started – _ew_ – making out.

 _Gross_. Mike turned around and ran back inside the school. He was a little confused at what his sister was doing with Jonathan since, last he checked, she was dating that guy Steve Harrington, but mostly he just _really_ didn't want to think about it.

When the 3 o'clock bell rang signaling the end of school, Mike jumped out of his seat and ran out into the hallway. He ignored his friends calling out to him, ignored the teachers shouting "No running in the halls!", ignored everything. He ran to the bike rack and unlocked his bike with trembling, impatient hands. With a running start he took off, racing through Hawkins to the Byers' house on the edge of town, going so fast that his feet nearly flew off the pedals. When he reached El's house, he bounded towards the front door and knocked with all his might, nervously hopping from foot to foot as he waited for someone to answer, practicing his apologies under his breath.

Chief Hopper answered the door, much to Mike's surprise and terror. He looked down at Mike with narrowed eyes, and Mike knew instantly that Hopper had heard what happened between him and El yesterday - and was not happy about it.

"Wheeler. What are you doing here?" asked Hopper, folding his arms across his chest. Mike tried really hard not to make eye contact or look at the gun holster on the policeman's belt. He swallowed nervously.

"Hello, Hop… that is, Chief Hopper, sir, um, I'm here to talk to El – Eleven – is she, um is she here?"

The chief shook his head slightly and Mike interpreted the gesture as meaning he wasn't going to be allowed inside. He panicked and began to argue, blurting out the whole story without even thinking.

"Listen, Chief Hopper, I know I screwed up and she probably doesn't want to talk to me, and I know you and Ms. Byers and Will and Jonathan all hate me now and El probably does too, but please, please, _please_ just let me talk to her, you have to let me in!" he begged. Hopper's expression softened very slightly. "I _have_ to talk to her because, well, I was really stupid and I never should have yelled at her and I only did it because I was embarrassed because she found out that I had a crush on her and…"

"Mike. _Mike!_ Slow down kid, you're gonna give yourself a stroke," said Hopper.

Mike stopped talking and turned red. _I can't believe I just said all that to the Chief._

Hopper sighed and scratched the back of his head. He was still angry at Mike for making Ellie upset, but he knew in his heart that the kid meant well. "Look, Wheeler, to tell you the truth, El isn't here. She left about twenty minutes ago and if I had to guess, I'd say she was on her way over to your place."

The boy's eyes went wide. "My place?" Before Hopper could so much as blink, Mike was back on his bike and rushing away towards town. Hopper chuckled. _Good luck, kid._

* * *

 _One chapter left! :D_


	11. Chapter 11

Mike pedaled so fast his bike tires practically left scorch marks in their wake. He was so desperate to get back home to see El that he actually went ahead and braved the Mirkwood shortcut, despite the way it always made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Screw the monsters, Eleven was waiting for him. At least, he hoped she was still waiting. _What if she's not there?_ He couldn't let himself worry about that. Just keep going, one block after another, almost there now, almost there.

He found her standing in his backyard under a bare oak tree, bundled up in her new coat, staring at him, her cheeks pink from the cold. She looked beautiful, but she also looked like she maybe hadn't slept, and he felt a rush of adoration that was tinged with guilt. He dropped the bike on the ground and ran to her.

"El!" he called out. His face was flushed red and he was breathing hard and his hair was disheveled from the wind.

He grabbed her hand, feeling the warmth of it even through her mittens. "I'm so sorry, El, I was such a jerk. I can't believe… I should never have yelled at you like that." He squeezed her palm.

"Mike…" she began, speaking so quietly he had to strain to hear over the rustling of the trees and the rush of distant traffic, "It's okay. Just… can you… can you tell me why you were angry?" She had tears in the corners of her eyes now, and he felt like the lowest form of humanity imaginable. He knew he owed it to her to be honest, but he wasn't sure he would be able to make her understand – wasn't sure he even understood it, himself.

"Well… I guess I got upset because I was embarrassed. Um, because you heard me telling Dustin about – you know – how I like you, and stuff. I didn't want you to find out about that." He scuffed his shoes on the ground and shrugged his shoulders up to his ears.

"Why not?" she asked, tilting her head.

Mike sighed and looked up at the sky, feeling like he was confessing his deepest, darkest secret. "Because… because I know you don't like me. I mean, I know you don't have a crush on me." Mike was too busy avoiding El's eyes to notice her reaction. "We're just friends, and I didn't want to make everything all awkward and weird. Although I guess now it's going to be weird anyways…"

"Mike." El interrupted his ramblings. He finally met her gaze and realized with surprise that she was smiling, with that tiny hidden smile that most people would never even notice but that always made him feel like he had won the lottery.

"Yeah?" he asked, hopefully.

She leaned in towards him, making his heartbeat stutter and his mind go blank. Something about the way she was looking at him made it absolutely impossible for him to move, or breathe, or think straight.

Gently, she reached out and touched his face, brushing her fingers over the freckles on his cheek. "Pretty," she whispered. Next she placed her palm lightly against his chest, right above where his heart was rapidly beating. "Good." She smiled, looking into his eyes and willing him to understand.

Before he could fully process what was happening, she had pressed her lips to his.

It was just as sweet as their last kiss, only slightly longer and with a bit more preparedness on both sides. Mike felt warm and light-headed and had the strange sensation that the ground had given way beneath him, but he didn't mind at all. It wasn't until El stopped kissing him and he looked down that he realized they were both actually floating about a foot up in the air.

"Woah." Mike looked back at El, who blushed and quickly brought them back down to Earth. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a pink paper heart, almost as big as a dinner plate. It was covered in glitter and decorated with hundreds of small, brightly colored stickers. She handed it to him forcefully and stared at her shoes, too shy to watch his reaction.

She mustered up all of her courage and shouted out loud, "Mike… I crush you!"

It wasn't exactly the typical way to use the phrase, but Mike knew what she meant – and what she meant was making him want to do a cartwheel right there on the lawn.

"Really?" he said, still a little stunned. "You crush – I mean, you have a crush on me?"

She nodded, biting her lip and slowly meeting his gaze. The look of absolute wonder in his eyes made her feel like the most important person in the universe.

"I have a crush on you, too!" he blurted out, his eyes bright.

She almost laughed. "I know, remember?"

Mike blushed and chuckled. "Oh, right." He felt giddy and off-balance, almost like when his parents had given him his first ever glass of champagne for New Year's and he'd ended up giggling so much he nearly fell off the couch.

He suddenly realized that El had been standing out in the cold for twenty minutes waiting for him, and he felt a pang of concern. "Let's go inside, El, you must be freezing."

El was feeling anything but cold, but she went along with him as they walked through the back door to his basement. They sat together in the blanket fort, Mike's arm wrapped around El's shoulder and her hand resting on his knee. Mike was studying the Valentine she had given him as if it were a priceless work of art, an irrepressible smile on his face. "I never made a Valentine before," said El, shyly. "Did I do it right?"

Mike nodded forcefully, and her heart soared. "It's perfect, El! Thank you." He frowned. "I feel bad I didn't get you anything."

 _What more could I possibly ask for,_ thought Eleven. _This is everything._ She almost told him so, but suddenly he stood up. "Stay there! I'll be right back!" he said, excited. She nodded and he bolted up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She listened with curiosity as he crashed through the house above her, running into tables and rummaging through drawers. "Ah-ha!" she heard him shout, and she giggled.

He came back down the stairs and his expression reminded her of the way he always looked just before he surprised the other boys with a particularly exciting twist in one of their games.

"Mike, what is it?" she asked, trying to see what he was holding behind his back.

"I actually bought you this for Christmas…" Mike confessed, blushing, "but I was too chicken – I mean, I was too scared – to give it to you, then. Because… well, you'll see." He took her hand and dropped something cool and smooth like a pebble into her palm. She brought it up to her face to examine and gasped, entranced. It was a small crystal heart strung on a delicate gold chain. "It's not a real diamond or anything," he explained, apologetic, "but I thought you might like it. Do you – do you like it?"

El nodded, still staring down at the crystal in wonder. She couldn't believe something so lovely could be _hers_. "It's beautiful," she whispered.

 _It means that my heart is yours,_ he thought, but didn't say out loud, not wanting to sound like a complete cheese-ball.

Mike offered to show her how to fasten the chain around her neck, but El seemed content to hold the little pendant in her hand, liking the way it felt against her fingertips and the way it shimmered in the light. Mike sat back down and El nestled into his shoulder. "Look at all the colors, Mike!" she murmured, turning the necklace this way and that. "Where are they coming from?"

Mike was glad he'd paid attention during this lesson in science class. "They come from inside the light," he explained. "White light has all the colors mixed together inside of it, and when it hits glass at just the right angle, the light is refracted – that is, it's split up – and you can see each color individually. Like a rainbow."

El tilted her head. "Rainbow?"

"Oh! Right," Mike said. "Sometimes, when it rains, the sun comes out and shines through the raindrops and the light gets refracted, and a huge colorful arch called a rainbow appears in the sky." He gestured with his hands, showing her the shape.

Eleven's eyes were as big as saucers. "Really?"

Mike nodded. "Rainbows don't happen very often here, but when they do, it's the best! Even grown-ups get excited when they see a rainbow." He grinned and squeezed her hand. "You'll see it one day. I'll make sure."

"It sounds like magic," sighed Eleven, closing her eyes to try to picture it.

"It does, doesn't it?" Mike said, smiling. Then he had a thought.

"Speaking of magic… what happened to our, um, mind-connection-thing?"

Eleven looked down sadly. "I think it's broken. I tried talking to you last night, but it was like… you weren't even there anymore."

Mike frowned. "I'm sorry, El. It's all my fault." He rubbed her shoulder comfortingly. "I'm here now, so should we give it another try?"

She seemed unsure. "I don't even know how I did it, before."

"Just try," he encouraged, then hesitated. "If you want to, that is. It's your powers, so it's up to you."

"No, I – I want to," she mumbled shyly.

"Do you need to eat something first? Get your energy up?" he asked, suddenly concerned.

She smiled and shook her head. "Just… here." She moved over to sit across from him, holding both of his hands, their knees almost touching.

"Do I need to do anything, or…" he offered, nervously.

El nearly rolled her eyes. "Just stay still."

"Oh. Okay."

El caught Mike's gaze and held it. He felt his face getting hot and his heart started to pound. Her eyes were just so _intense_ , deep and dark and beautiful. Her eyelids fluttered closed and he felt like he could almost _see_ her marshaling her psychic powers with every twitch of her eyebrow or flex of her jaw. He knew he had no special abilities himself, but still he tried to focus on her, figuring that since he had inadvertently severed their connection, he might be able to help repair it. When she opened her eyes again, they nearly swallowed him whole. Mike heard a ringing in his ears and his palms started to sweat. He tried not to think about the fact that she had the capability to literally melt his brain.

 _Mike!_

He jumped in surprise, hearing her voice in his head, then let out a laugh. "You did it! I heard you!"

El smiled weakly, coming out of her trance. He noticed the blood dripping from her nose and wiped it away with his sleeve, not caring about the stain. He pulled her into an embrace, gently tracing patterns over her scalp with his fingertips. "Does it hurt?" he asked softly.

"A little," she admitted. "But it's worth it. Now I can talk to you whenever I want."

He smiled. "I'm looking forward to it." He stood up, ignoring her protests. "I'm going to get you some food, okay? I'll be right back." He was about to head upstairs, but then he hesitated and blurted out, "Hey, El? Uh, you still can't read my mind, right?"

El giggled. "No…" He sighed with relief and walked up to the kitchen, opening the freezer.

 _Well… not yet, anyway,_ he heard her say in his mind. And then: _Mike! Do you have any Eggos?_

He smiled a rueful smile and looked at the box of blueberry waffles in his hands. There were some things you didn't need psychic powers to predict.

THE END

* * *

I'd like to thank every single one of my reviewers for being amazing and keeping me motivated. This is the first time I've ever finished a fic that was this long, and you guys are absolutely the reason.

Please let me know what you thought of this chapter! I know expectations were kind of high, so I'm a little nervous. I finished this part very early on so I've been really looking forward to sharing it with you all.

As for what I'm writing next... I haven't decided. I have an idea for a more action/adventure type story where Mike and the boys go looking for El... but I also have some mileven fluff ideas still kicking around in my head... so we'll see.

Thanks again, and please leave a review with your reaction to the chapter and the story! :D


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